Blind
by Tarafina
Summary: She was blind once, but now she saw. Chlollie!


**_Blind _**

**1/1 **

When Lois heard her cousin was in the hospital (again), she hadn't expected to find what she did. She'd rushed down hallways, heels clicking behind her loudly. She waved off the annoying nurses asking her where she was going and what she was doing. While Chloe often got into trouble, that didn't make moments like this any easier. She was alive, she knew, but Chloe had a habit of getting into serious danger and she needed to see her to feel any semblance of calm. She slowed as the half-open door leading to Chloe came into view and took a deep breath. She knew going in looking frazzled wouldn't help and she wanted her wits about her. While she and her cousin were the closest family could get, they still used humor to get out of those moments that could swallow a person whole. She approached the door hesitantly, planting a smile on her face despite knowing Chloe would see right through it. However, as she stood in the doorway, she was greeted with a sight that never entered her mind for a moment.

Chloe wasn't alone. Lois would've expected Clark to be there, maybe even Jimmy given the two were still friends. But the male lying on the bed beside her, head on the stiff pillow, directed toward Chloe and only a few inches apart, was _not _anybody Lois had thought she'd see for some time and not in the position he was in now. While she'd reconciled her feelings for the man and she understood his secret and the lifestyle he led, even knew that Chloe worked for him on occasion, she'd never expected _this_. Her body went rigid with shock and she peered through the space of the door to the couple that lay unknowing of her spying.

Chloe looked pretty beat up; her face covered in various bruises, lip fat with a cut and a bandage running along her hairline. Still, she smiled brilliantly at the man next to her. She was comfortably sprawled beneath the starchy white blanket while he lay on top of it in a relaxed position that spoke volumes. There were no designer suits today and so she knew it wasn't just a stop by from work. In fact, he was wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a green sweater shirt that she assumed he threw on in haste. His large hand reached out toward Chloe, brushing her bangs off her face gently, thumb stroking the edge of the bandage as if to soothe her pain away. As his hand slid lower, it grazed the side of her face before skimming down her back and lying comfortably against her.

"You keep getting into these scrapes and I think I'm going to have to lock you away," he told her, voice low and quiet. His mouth quirked with a grin. "Hide you away in my bedroom and never let you stir up any more trouble."

She laughed, rolling her eyes. "Hey, I'm _solving_ these problems. Sometimes, trouble needs to be stirred."

His fingers rubbed at her back slowly. "Does it always have to be you doing it?"

"You do your fair share," she reminded, staring up at him through her deep green eyes. "We all do our part, Ollie."

"So why is it you're the one that takes most of the damage?" he wondered, the humor he'd previously held in his voice fading.

"Bad luck," she told him, half-smiling. "It happens."

He sighed, shifting closer to her and she snuggled up to his chest, her hand splaying out over his side. "You're not impenetrable."

"Neither are you."

He stared at her soberly before leaning in to press a kiss against her forehead, his eyes closing as he lingered. "We could pick up training again," he suggested quietly. "When your strength is back."

She rubbed his arm, shaking her head. "No matter how much I train, things aren't going to change. I do this, I love this, and sometimes…" She frowned. "It gets me hurt." She nuzzled her forehead against his chin. "I've accepted it; so should you."

"I don't want to get a call from the hospital one night telling me your luck ran out," he murmured, voice strained. His arms tightened around her and she rubbed his side.

Tugging back slightly, she looked up at him, her hand lifting to cup his cheek, thumb stroking beneath his eye. "I can't promise it won't happen. We agreed when this started that we wouldn't let our feelings interfere with our lifestyles." Her fingertips ran up and down the side of his face and Lois admitted, at least to herself, that she'd never seen her cousin so tender with someone. "I would never ask you to stop being who you are and you can't ask me."

"I know." He licked his lips. "I know," he repeated, his jaw clenching before he rested his chin on the top of her head and hugged her close.

Lois didn't know what to make of it. Her ex-boyfriend, a man she'd loved, with the cousin she adored like a sister. Her heart stuttered and her knees felt weak. She told her feet to run, to get away from the vision before her. God it hurt more than she ever expected. She knew the two were close. Good friends, at least. Chloe had been working with Oliver for the last year, doing research work for his League and so she kept up constant communication with him. It wasn't rare to hear she was out with him; another city, another state, another country even. Lois trusted Oliver with her cousin's life and she hadn't been disappointed to know that he took that responsibility very serious. She hadn't realized he'd grown so close to her though.

She'd seen the two together in the past and maybe she'd been blind to it. As she thought back, there were various moments that stood out as more than friendly. Why did they always show up together to events? Why was it she only really spent her time with Oliver and not the rest of the League? Most coworkers don't refer to each other with pet names like Angel Eyes and Romeo. They didn't stand as close as Oliver and Chloe did or touch each other so intimately. Most leaders wouldn't kiss the cheek of a League member in greeting or stroke their hair at random intervals. How could she not have seen it earlier? The way Oliver seemed magnetically drawn to Chloe's side over the last year. How Chloe had avoided her hints at dating various guys she knew; backed up by Oliver's easy change of the subject each time. The whispering, the little touches, the phone conversations that she always left the room to have, the way Oliver looked at her, how she looked back. She shook her head, tears sprung to her eyes. They'd been together all along.

Chloe rolled onto her other side, her back pressing into his chest. He spooned up behind her, one of his arms beneath the pillow while the other wrapped around her. Her eyes were fluttering slightly with tiredness and Lois felt her throat strain as she watched the way Oliver tipped his head down, nuzzling her hair out of the way to press a kiss behind her ear. Chloe's mouth quirked with a small smile. Oliver's lips trailed down the column of her neck and Chloe even shrugged down the sleeve of her hospital gown so there was more skin for him to lavish. So sweet and tender, he brushed his lips over her skin, caressing it as if it were the most exotic of silks. She turned her head slightly, looking up at him from the corner of her eyes, fond adoration glittering out at him. And he stared back, those brown eyes looking warmer than Lois had ever seen.

He smiled before pressing a kiss against her cheek, dropping lower, inch by inch, until his lips were hovering over hers. Chloe's hand rose, wrapping around the back of his neck, fingers threading into his hair. Their noses brushed before their lips fused together. His hand lifted to cup cheek, fingers brushing the shell of her ear as they kissed. Lips parting, tongues dancing, mouth slanting and caressing. His hand slid away from her face, tracing her neck and across her collar before sliding down the center of her body, knuckles brushing the curves of her breasts before his palm settled over her stomach, bunching up her gown beneath his fingers as their kiss grew intense. His tongue soothed over the cut of her lip and he suckled it into his mouth, their breath mingling as their kisses became slow, lingering brushes. Their eyes opened to stare at each other, chins tipping up with each meeting of their lips. Her eyes fluttered and he drew away from her mouth, kissing her neck once more as he nuzzled his face down against her shoulder.

With a soft sigh, she settled her head back against the pillow and let her eyes fall shut.

"I love you," he murmured against her hair.

"Mm," she sounded, smiling sleepily. "Love you too."

Lois' hand rose, fingers curling tightly as she pressed it against her chest and blinked away her tears. She licked her lips and swallowed the tight ball of emotion in her throat before backing away from the door. She hit a hard hindrance and turned around to face the broad chest of Clark Kent. She looked up at him, bringing up her brave face, and tried to glare. "Mind moving out of the way, Smallville? Us normal sized people have things to do." Her chin quivered and she prayed he didn't notice.

He smiled softly and she knew he knew. Her resolve slipped and a tear escaped her eyes. His arms wrapped around her, tight and comforting and she let herself bury her face against his chest. His chin rested atop her hair and she admitted, at least in her rare moment of weakness, that she felt swallowed up by him in an entirely too good way; like he was shielding her from all the hurt. She could grow to appreciate that. With a slight laugh, she drew back before she could think of what could be and looked up at him, lifting a shoulder and wiping her eyes quickly.

They stepped farther away from the door and his hand wrapped around her arm. "You okay?"

He didn't looks surprised by the revelation of Oliver and Chloe and she wasn't surprised.

"How long?" she asked instead of answering him.

He sighed, frowning. "Seven or eight months," he told her, nodding.

Her brows lifted and she bit her lip in a mix of anger and sorrow.

"Only the League really knew," he said, as if it would soothe her betrayal.

"I'm her cousin," she said in a strangled whisper when her voice wouldn't work. "She's like my _sister_."

"Which is probably why she didn't want to tell you," Clark said thoughtfully.

Lois shook her head. "She should have."

He was quiet for a moment before he asked, "What would you have done if she had?"

She stared at him, her brows knit.

"Stopped them? Asked her not to fall in love? Made her choose between you and him?" He swallowed, eyes turning away. "You know them, Lois, probably better than most people." He shook his head. "They're not together to hurt you or just for the fun of it. They're…" He sighed heavily, arms crossing over his chest. "You saw them."

She nodded, blinking rapidly. "He never looked at me like that," she admitted, shaking her head slightly as her eyes filled once more. "I think he loved me…I _know _he loved me." She nodded, turning sad eyes up to him. "But I don't think he was _in love_ with me."

He opened his mouth to reply, but she shook her head, cutting him off.

"No, listen, I mean… He could leave me, right? He could walk away." She turned her head, staring at the couple lying in the hospital bed together. "He could never leave her. I know he couldn't." She smiled sadly, bitterly. "Look at them, Clark." She lifted a hand, wiping away a stray tear. "I should be happy for them." She laughed quietly, humorlessly. "He's a wonderful man and she's… She's so incredible!" She turned her eyes upward, trying to hold back her tears.

"Yeah," he said quietly and she turned back to stare into his engrossing blue-green eyes, filled with worry and concern and honest care.

"I can't be happy now," she admitted with a lift of her shoulder. "But I will be one day." She sighed, her gaze falling for a moment. "Maybe when they tell me… Maybe when I'm standing at her wedding as her maid of honor…" She shook her head, lips trembling. "Maybe never. Who knows?"

He reached out, his fingers brushing away her tears and cupping her face softly before he tugged her closer and hugged her tightly. Her arms wrapped around him this time and she breathed in that familiar Clark Kent scent. Comforting and refreshing and warm somehow. She didn't know how long he held her, but her eyes were dry when she finally pulled back. He smiled down at her, hand rubbing her shoulder and she sniffled slightly.

"You hungry?" she asked, lifting a brow. She nodded her head toward the sleeping Chloe. "She may be stuck with hospital food, but I know a great burger joint down the street."

He grinned, knowing that she was finished with the sad subject of old love and new love and everything between. "I could summon up an appetite."

"Great," she said, linking her arm with his and turning them away from the wall. "Keep your paws off my fries though!" she warned, brow lifting.

He chuckled. She ignored the way her stomach squirmed at the deep hearty sound.

As they passed the window to Chloe's room, she glanced over, peering through the open blinds to see Oliver fast asleep, curled around the woman she knew he would one day marry. There was still a pang in her heart at the thought, but she smiled anyway. She may have been blind before but she wasn't any longer and she knew a good thing when she saw it. Happily ever after's were rare, but they'd get theirs. She just knew it.

* * *

**Author's Note**: _Hope you enjoyed this. I know, I know, **Amorous** needs it's update. But writing a love scene is a little undoable at the moment. Too much traffic. Soon though, promise! Be sure to check out the story image on my profile! Luv yas - Fina!_


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